Tense time for Bush and Blair

By BBC News Online's Rachel Clarke in Washington and BBC News Online's Nyta Mann in London

Problems are mounting for a US president once thought unassailable

Both the US and UK leaders are coming under fire from all sides, with anger growing about troops in Iraq and the intelligence used to put the case for war.

BBC News Online looks at the pressure US President George W Bush and UK Prime Minister Tony Blair faces as fallout over the conflict continues.

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He may have declared victory in the war against Saddam Hussein, but US President George W Bush is in danger of losing a battle for popularity at home.

It is becoming a key period for Mr Bush and the events in Iraq will continue to be crucial, possibly even having a say in whether he keeps his job

He and his top officials are coming under fire, not just from the usual crowd of political opponents, but increasingly from a far broader spectrum of people.

The public are seeing news programmes interviewing soldiers who spearheaded the push to Baghdad but still do not know when they will be brought home from a war they thought was over.

The level of frustration expressed by the troops is extraordinary, not simply that some men are openly questioning their overall leaders but that they are doing so in such a public way.

Presenters then cross to the families of the military personnel who have not seen them for many months. Pregnant wives talk of their prayers for their husbands, children simply ask when their daddies are coming home.

The troops and their families are becoming a constant backdrop - and not the one that Mr Bush used when he flew to an aircraft carrier on 1 May to declare major combat operations in Iraq were over.

The sailors who stood and cheered him then were coming home, but now the public story is about those still fighting.

White House cracks

The political row about what intelligence was used to put the case for war also continues to rage.

US and UK residents give their views on the controversy surrounding the Iraqi conflict

In pictures

White House press briefings are dominated by questions about the claims used by the president in his State of the Union speech that Saddam Hussein was trying to get uranium from Africa.

A week ago - while Mr Bush was out of the country - officials conceded the allegations should not have got into the speech. CIA director George Tenet accepted responsibility for the error and officials spent the weekend trying to play down the issue.

But reports on Thursday say Mr Tenet told senators that he did not see or approve the now-infamous 16-word passage in the State of the Union, though he still says the buck stops with him.

Democrats hoping to challenge Mr Bush for the White House next year are making the most of this opportunity to damage a president who had seemed unassailable a short time ago.

They are being encouraged by recent opinion polls which suggest the American public is losing some of its faith in Mr Bush.

It is becoming a key period for Mr Bush and the events in Iraq will continue to be crucial, possibly even having a say in whether he keeps his job.

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In the long build-up to the Iraq war, UK Prime Minister Tony Blair was under no misapprehension as to the state of public opinion on going to war against Iraq: It was deeply opposed.

Blair faced severe isolation from the British public over the Iraqi war

Poll after poll confirmed it, no matter how passionate his speeches against Saddam Hussein, and regardless of ministers' occasionally blood-curdling warnings as to the Iraqi dictator's supposed arsenal of weapons of mass destruction.

If at any point Mr Blair doubted the surveys, February's anti-war demonstration in London put him right.

More than one million people took to the capital's streets in the biggest demonstration in British history.

Paying the price

Faced with this wall of public opposition, the prime minister adopted a strategy of deliberately seeking out sceptical public audiences, hoping that by directly engaging with their concerns he might win them round.

The public see Mr Blair's case for war - so firmly set out on the way to conflict - looking shakier the with each week that passes

Remember the slow-handclap response when he sought to win round women voters, broadcast on ITV's Tonight with Trevor Macdonald?

The episode was an uncomfortable illustration of just how isolated he was.

People intensely disliked Saddam Hussein, but they also deeply distrusted US President George W Bush, and were far from impressed at Mr Blair acting as his "poodle".

The long-anticipated outbreak of war in March brought some relief.

As had been expected, on British troops being sent into battle, opinion surveys showed the gap between those opposed to and those backing the war dramatically narrowed.

After a quick war, a "Baghdad bounce" lifted support for the military action and for Mr Blair.

But the continuing absence of weapons of mass destruction, along with the focus returning to domestic issues, has meant that bounce has petered out.

The public see Mr Blair's case for war - so firmly set out on the way to conflict - looking shakier the with each week that passes.

He is now paying the price, with falling ratings for trust and, for the first time ever, opinion polls showing him to be a liability to the Labour Party.